


Take You Home

by DarkPoisonousLove



Series: Sparks of Life [10]
Category: Winx Club
Genre: Alternate Universe, Anger, Childhood Trauma, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Mentions of abusive parenting, Ogling, but luckily they have each other, they're both going through some things
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-21
Updated: 2020-04-21
Packaged: 2021-03-01 22:14:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,634
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23774425
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkPoisonousLove/pseuds/DarkPoisonousLove
Summary: Coming back to the penthouse after a social event with the elite of society leaves Griffin and Valtor with some emotions that need to be assorted. After so many years of being deemed unworthy to receive any adequate emotional care, Valtor is happy that Griffin was there for him to teach him how to bring them both back to the comfort of their home and ground them in it.
Relationships: Griffin/Valtor | Baltor (Winx Club)
Series: Sparks of Life [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1584010
Comments: 2
Kudos: 3





	Take You Home

**Author's Note:**

> I wasn't expecting all the angst in this but there's also a good dose of fluff to compensate for it. Or so I hope. I'd be glad to hear your opinions.

“Home, sweet home,” Valtor said as he parked the car in the garage. He was being a bit overdramatic since it’d been just a few hours since they’d left for the charity gala but they’d honestly felt like years. Even with Griffin’s warmth at his side and her laughter in his ears. He hated to think about ever going to a social event without her. He had no idea how he’d survived all those years before he’d met her but he knew he couldn’t do it now that he’d tasted the respite her company provided even when he couldn’t taste her lips in the hall full of people.

“At long last,” Griffin huffed as she unbuckled her seatbelt slowly, her movements drained of energy. She hated those gatherings with a burning passion–especially when they were some sort of fundraisers for the “less fortunate” as if luck had anything to do with gaining millions–but she hated the thought of staying home alone while he was at an event on his own so she always came with and he’d be forever grateful for it. And maybe a tad bit smug that she preferred his company over that of a good book even when she had to endure the presence of annoying “high society” members. It was a testament to her love and while he didn’t need proof to know how vast that was, he still appreciated it.

“Yes, social events certainly feel like a punishment straight out of hell when the guest list is only made up of boring snobs,” Valtor said as he pushed his door open and got out of the car and she followed his example, looking like she wanted to feel the comfort of their home as much as he did. He couldn’t wait to get out of his suit and into her embrace. He’d spent all night practically glued to her but with all those eyes on them it’d felt more like he’d been trying to shelter himself inside her being instead of cherishing her simply for the sake of it. He needed to fix that. “Good thing I had some quality company with me,” he said as he caught her gaze over the roof of the car while he was locking the vehicle.

Griffin grinned at him. “I’m starting to think you’ll never stop getting distracted by me so I suppose you have nothing to worry about there,” she said, drawing his attention to the way the mirth radiated from her as if to prove her words when she made him forget everything else for the time being as he walked over to her, never breaking eye contact and Griffin turned to meet him when he came to stand in front of her.

Valtor took her hand in his, content washing over him when she immediately closed her fingers around his. “You are the most beautiful sight both my eyes and my heart have seen,” he said, watching her eyes shine like they were made of light as he brought her hand up to his lips to put a kiss on it and just the thought of him being the one who put all of it inside her heart was enough to make him the happiest man in the universe and erase all of his problems. They were all inconsequential when he had her there with him to love and worship and get the same in return from her precious soul. It was a dream she’d made come true when he hadn’t even known it existed in his heart and it made her the most special person he’d ever known.

“Sweet talker,” Griffin teased lightly after she’d made sure he knew the compliment was met with reverence and welcomed in the core of her being where it would live from now on along with all the rest of those he’d offered her during the years. It was a good thing her soul was so big–endless–that it had enough space to be the home to all of his admiration for her.

“Well, of course it’s sweetness that comes out of my mouth when there’s nothing else inside of me thanks to you,” Valtor said, smiling when she chuckled even when it was in the midst of an eye-roll. He’d deserved that but it was a _sweet_ price to pay for managing to amuse her. Especially after the evening of stiff etiquette they’d had.

“Come on, I want to get rid of these shoes,” Griffin said as she pulled on his hand and he let her drag him towards the elevator. “I’m considering throwing them off the balcony and the possibility of hitting an innocent passer-by is the only thing that’s stopping me,” she confessed.

Valtor understood the impulse to get rid of everything uncomfortable–he himself was dying to finally escape the hold of his tie that had had to remain “properly” tightened around his neck the entire time–but he thought her discomfort could have something to do with the fact that she was mentally exhausted from the whole thing when she hadn’t been burning with the desire to be there to begin with. She was used to wearing heels and rarely complained about them so there had to be something else. It almost made him wish that he’d left her home where she could have rested instead of dragging her along with him but he knew she wouldn’t have heard a thing of it and it was him who had to relent. Her stubbornness was one of the things that had charmed him anyway.

“That and the fact that it would be a crime to throw them out after how much you paid for them. I’ve barely worn them,” Griffin said as she let go of him to press the button for the elevator and gave him the opportunity to wrap his arm around her waist and pull her closer to him like he’d wanted to the whole time but he hadn’t wanted to draw not only the eyes but the whispers to them, too, when he’d known she hadn’t been comfortable anyway. She laid her head on his shoulder and sighed contentedly and it made him wish to never leave their private space again when he wouldn’t get to feel that whenever they weren’t alone.

He would happily grab the shoes and throw them in the nearest incinerator but he knew she hated to be wasteful. She was always so thoughtful and he loved her all the more for it. “Too bad there’s no way to drop them on the head of every single one of those clowns we had to stand all evening,” he said when he knew that at least would lift her spirits even when it needed to remain just a fantasy.

“Truly a shame,” Griffin said quietly but he could hear the smirk in her tone as the mental image was no doubt doing its job of entertaining her just the way he’d intended. There had to be something in the whole ordeal for them, too, and coming up with somewhat violent scenarios of retribution for the scrutiny they’d been put under during the entirety of the gala was sort of a tradition at this point. They would make for one hell of a murder couple despite Griffin’s usual kindness and his oath to never become like his mothers who may have gotten away on the charges of murder but he knew they were guilty through and through.

The elevator brought them up to the penthouse and it was still striking how much relief flooded him at the sight of the apartment. There was security in the memories he could see everywhere around him and the place was truly a home when it was imbued with their shared life. There was magic in knowing she was there with him, sharing the space not only of his apartment but of his existence as well and enriching it with her presence, helping him truly live. It was so intimate and at the same time so open when he could just reach out and touch every detail of her life when it was all sheltered there along with his own.

Griffin threw her clutch on the couch and went straight for the shoes, leaning on him as she unclasped the straps that held them to her ankles. She didn’t even have to ask for him to hold up her dress so that she could actually reach under the long dark green fabric and get rid of the heels that had tormented her more than enough for one evening.

She dropped them next to the couch as well, carelessly like she almost never did. “Will you unzip me?” she asked as she moved out of his grasp and in front of him when she already knew he would help her with her predicament.

“It will be my pleasure,” Valtor said as he instantly reached to free her from the satin that clung to her body beautifully but adamantly like it was ivy that needed her life energy to sustain itself. It almost made him wish he hadn’t helped her put it on before they’d headed out even if the color did look spectacular on her. Though, on the other hand, everything did so she could have chosen anything else from her wardrobe and she wouldn’t have been any less gorgeous. He would’ve appreciated it the most if they could have just stayed at home and gotten each other out of their clothes instead of going to a black-tie event.

“I’m afraid pleasure is going to have to take a backseat to sleep,” Griffin said just as he was sliding the dress off of her to leave her naked except for the black lace of her underwear. “I am too tired,” she said and he understood. The evening had been mentally and emotionally taxing on both of them and he would love to simply curl up with her in bed and fall asleep to the sound of her even breathing. It was the most calm and secure thing in the world and soothed him like nothing else could. “Necklace, please,” Griffin reminded after he’d left her dress to drop on the floor and he wasn’t doing much more than rubbing her shoulders to help her relax.

“Of course,” Valtor agreed–to everything she’d said–and reached to unclasp the golden chain that had the blood red ruby at the end of it suspended between her breasts where the plunging neckline of the dress allowed it to be. It looked like a small version of her brilliant heart and had made him so proud of both their taste – his for buying it and hers for wearing it so appropriately on a night when he needed her support with his predicament as much as the children that the donations would go to.

He let go of the ends of the chain when he felt the weight of the ruby was supported by Griffin’s palm. It had her turning to him instantly and slipping the necklace into the pocket of his suit jacket to leave her hands free to work on his tie. He could sigh in relief although she hadn’t even started taking it off yet.

“You’re breathtaking,” he said as he watched her deftly undoing the tie and loosening its hold on his neck. He didn’t need her nakedness put in the context of sex to appreciate it. It was enough to know she felt comfortable sharing the sight of herself like that–so natural and exposed–with him. There was trust and intimacy and all of those warm, fuzzy feelings that left his heart full but didn’t make him afraid it could explode because they just had it swell and expand until it was big enough to shelter all of them, like an entire universe of happiness right there in his chest.

“I wish that were true in the literal sense so that vulture Hankens would just drop dead the next time he decided to spend the entire time he was talking to you staring at my cleavage,” Griffin said, the anger seeping through in her words now that she wasn’t grinding her teeth in order to crush it before it could get out like she’d been doing at the gala. “Just because my neckline is so low doesn’t mean that he should stare at me like I’m a piece of meat on sale,” she said, the words not any louder now but they sure carried a lot more negative energy than before. She hadn’t had her chance to express her disdain for the whole ordeal yet and it was finally starting to pour out now that they were at the safety of their own space.

“I’m afraid that nothing will make him take a hint if the fact that I was on your arm the whole time didn’t succeed in that,” Valtor allowed himself to join her. Frankly, he would prefer to leave the whole dread of the experience right there at the gala but she was still angry and it would be far better for her to let it out rather than bottle it up inside. She’d taught him that and it had worked miracles when he’d finally released all those feelings he’d been stuffing inside himself ever since he’d been little. She’d been there to listen through all of it and help him free himself from all the hurt and rage and he wanted to do the same for her when she needed it.

“I thought that it was me who was on your arm,” Griffin teased and he could see in her eyes that her laughter had come out to the surface and would just need her to release it to fill the penthouse. She was still amused by that time he’d let her walk around with him on her arm to shut up the tabloids that had been speculating whether she’d become his “trophy wife”. Good. He was glad to know that she still held that memory dear even long after it had done its job of cheering her up after the articles had upset her visibly despite her attempts to hide it. He would have let her parade around with him as her arm candy for the rest of his life if that was what would be necessary to brighten her mood. He was hers and he didn’t want anyone to have any doubts about that.

“Please, I was clutching at you so hard I had to put conscious efforts into loosening my grip to make sure I wouldn’t bruise you.” He’d wanted to pull her out of there and hide her from the world until she told him she wanted to go back outside. The lustful stares she’d received had made it hard for him to contain himself and his violent impulses. If there was anything that could change his mind about bringing her along to these events, it was definitely the ogling that he knew made her nauseous.

Griffin paused right as she undid the buttons of his shirt she’d started on after she was done with the knot of his tie. “I don’t know why I hoped that us being married would make any difference when it came to his staring when the fact that his own wife standing right next to him never did,” she whispered and he was ready to swear that her voice had that tremble in it that paved the way for tears of helplessness but she pulled his tie off sharply. “I’d feel sorry for her if she hadn’t spent the entire gala looking down on me like I’m scum she needs to scrape off the soles of her shoes,” Griffin spat out as she bent down to pick up her dress and throw it on the couch along with his tie to deal with them in the morning. The whole event had drained every last bit of her energy, not to mention her restraint when she’d been close to destroying Mrs Hankens simply with words.

She headed towards the bedroom and he was quick to discard his suit jacket–right after he took the necklace out of the pocket–and shirt and follow her. She needed all the support he could give her as she wasn’t used to being trampled so blatantly and dispassionately by someone’s self-imposed superiority. Nor would she ever get accustomed to it, he knew that. She hadn’t already and she wouldn’t in the future either. Not with her righteousness and flaming self-respect. And he wouldn’t want anything less of her but he knew it just left that acrid taste in her mouth when she had to confront the contempt she was met with by a hypocrite of high social status that didn’t even have half of her brains not to mention her kindness yet still acted like they were more than her just because they were born rich.

Griffin was already sitting in front of her vanity and taking out her earrings, her gaze so intense that he would have been scared for his life if it had been directed at him. Currently, her focus was on the earrings and ridding her ears of their weight which he had no reason to object to except that she was putting all the anger she couldn’t pour out on those who’d ignited it and deserved to feel its burn towards her own jewelry and he was afraid she’d hurt herself instead.

He left the necklace on the vanity so that his hands would be free to put on her shoulders and help ground her in the relaxed atmosphere their home provided. He didn’t need her accumulating even more restless rage and was happy to see his touch was actually helping. It seemed to drain the momentum of the anger and left her muscles slackening under his palms.

Griffin sighed as she let her hands fall away from her ears to leave the earrings on the wooden surface in front of her as she couldn’t be bothered to put them back in her jewelry box. It demanded too much energy that she simply didn’t have. “I know I don’t have her upbringing and decorum but the look she gave me when I actually laughed instead of making that soulless sound that echoes through all of them like a cheap imitation of an original that has never existed made me feel like I was too human,” she said, her voice small like he hadn’t quite heard it before, even when she’d been met with contempt for her lack of falsity. “It made me feel like I had to be ashamed that I was a living person instead of a robot that had any remote chance of meeting her standards,” she admitted and the words were enough to send him on a rampage but he couldn’t when he had to take care of her. It was because of him that she was even introduced at those circles and had to go through the hell of the upper class etiquette and the resentful stares she received when she dared be different, when she dared be herself.

“Just ignore her,” Valtor said, knowing it was easier said than done when the woman’s stare was piercing through you like needles the only purpose of which was to find your weak spots and attack them vehemently. “Nothing we do will ever be good enough for her.” Ignoring her was their best bet since they’d never win her approval no matter what. It’d been the same with his mothers when he’d striven to do his best but it had never satisfied them, sending him on a wild goose chase in the name of perfection that was simply unachievable. But he’d only figured that out after he’d realized he was enough for Griffin just as he was, just trying and not necessarily succeeding. It’d made him want to put all of his efforts into being better instead of forcing him to despair when he could never reach the impossibly high standard set for him.

“Don’t you mean nothing _I_ ever do?” Griffin asked but there was no malice in the question when her venom had never been directed towards him. She just sounded perplexed by the fact that he’d included himself and it pained him that she’d been so distressed by the woman’s behavior that she hadn’t even noticed that he was right there with her in her misery.

“I will always be just an undeserving brat picked up from the masses when Belladonna was too cold to even give birth to a child of her own in Hankens’ eyes,” Valtor said, the words coming out with ease now that he could tangle his hands in Griffin’s purple tresses and feel held in her love for him. It hadn’t always been like that but he preferred to focus on the softness of the present as he started pulling the pins out of Griffin’s hairdo to help her out and pull the enjoyment he knew she got out of having him playing with her hair to replace the negativity suffocating her. “It was always there but she just didn’t dare show it when my mothers were around since she was too scared of them. Once they were in jail, though, the resentment instantly surfaced and she’s made it more than clear that I will never be worthy of having everything that I do.”

It had stung in the beginning, burned even. What little joy he’d gotten of finally being free from his mothers’ hold on him had evaporated instantly when it’d become clear that not only she, but no one else thought he was capable of running the company nor did he deserve it when he was forcefully carved into the shape of a proper CEO and hadn’t been born with a silver spoon in his mouth. It had sent him overworking himself even more than the habits he’d been abused into had been forcing him to prove himself to people who had deemed him incompetent and unworthy without ever bothering to pay actual attention to any of his work. It had been a doomed mission that had, thankfully, changed when Griffin had entered his life.

She’d always made him feel seen and appreciated and like he didn’t need to deserve any of her love because she just wanted to give it to him. It’d finally convinced him of his worth both as a person and as the heir of the business and that was something no one else had bothered to do for him. So her opinion had become the only one that mattered. She was the only one who’d truly made a difference in his life turning it into something beautiful that he cherished every day and as such, she was the only one allowed to influence it. It was as much hers as it was his and no one else’s.

“Valtor... “ Griffin trailed off when the words would turn right into cries but the tears were still there in her eyes threatening to run free and destroy not just the makeup that she didn’t need anymore when they were finally home but also their peace when he knew they were forcefully dragged out of her by the imprint other people had left on his soul. She knew just how much his position as Belladonna’s son had cost him and it pained her just as much as it did him to hear someone accusing him of receiving things for free when he’d almost paid with his entire life for his wealth and status. He would have if it hadn’t been for her to share her own with him and fill the emptiness that’d been left when all of his joy and happiness and everything that made life worth living had been taken from him.

“Don’t cry, Griffin,” he said as he ran his hand through her hair that was now free from the hairdo to feel her shiver which left her muscles relaxing once again from the tension that had entered them. “They don’t deserve neither your tears, nor mine,” he said as he didn’t want to see her upset even if she’d been the only one that had cared enough to live through his pain along with him. He didn’t want her to suffer when he’d already been through that. He just wanted them to be happy together. “They already took enough from both of us.”

He left the hairpins he’d pulled out of her purple strands on the vanity as he tried not to think about all the times she’d been robbed of her peace of mind because of her relations to him and took her hand, immediately relaxing when she clasped it tightly in hers like she wanted to protect it from the possibility of them being pulled apart. She’d chosen to be there with him at every turn of his crazy life that no map could help you navigate and she’d remained at his side to help him steer it out of trouble and towards happiness. She was giving him peace of heart and he knew by the matching golden bands on their fingers that he was doing the same for her. It certainly was a magical knowledge that left him confident in himself and their love and that was the best gift he could ask for. It was the best present to help him make his peace with the past he’d had to live through because of someone else’s whims.

“I know what I have, Griffin,” he said as he held her gaze in the mirror to lend her some of that confidence she’d given him for safekeeping when she’d known she could trust him with that now that his heart had recovered from the violence it’d been subjected to from everyone, including himself when he’d allowed others to get in his head. “And I know it’s mine because I’m the one who can best take care of it,” he said, letting his love reach her even when she wasn’t facing him. She had all of it wrapped around her as she was the only one who’d earned his heart and the right to wear it as her crown that put her far above anyone else clawing at their feet to reach them with their selfish and cruel intentions. They were in their own heaven and no one else was worthy enough to get so high up and reach them there.

Griffin squeezed his hand. “Just let me remove my makeup and I’ll be there with you,” she said, her voice quivering slightly when the tears were still present but he could see even through the eye shadow and the mascara that those were happy ones because she was always real and honest with him and allowed him the privilege to see her soul. Something Hankens would never get to witness no matter how closely they observed her body or dissected her behavior. They were simply undeserving of witnessing all that beauty that she gave to the people she cared about and that was him, her friends and her students.

“You’re always with me,” he said as he let go of her just to make them both even more aware of that as the feeling of their connection wasn’t severed even when their skin wasn’t touching anymore. It could never be when they lived inside each other’s souls, their love for each other tangled together to flow through every obstacle with the force of a flood and to nurture the budding happiness inside them to grow when watered with it.

Griffin smiled at him and he knew he’d taken her home.


End file.
